Rushdown: Keeping the Advantage

Now that you’ve secured your advantage, how do you keep that advantage? You use the process of rushdown.

Rushdown has 3 major components: pressure tools, reversals, and blocking. We already know what blocking is, so let’s focus on the other 2 parts.

Pressure tools are attacks whose sole purpose is to limit the opponents’ options and force them into blocking. There are 6 basic types of pressure tools: Blockstrings (several fast pokes done in quick succession to maintain the opponent’s blockstun), tick throws (see the previous article), frame traps (blockstrings with an intentional gap to bait the opponent’s reversals, more on that later), mixups (forcing the opponent to guess between blocking high or low), crossups (jumping attacks that force the opponent to guess between blocking left or right), and meaties (attacks with a large number of active frames that hit on the opponent’s wakeup). Of course, this is just a cursory look at things, as I will elaborate on each of these concepts in future articles.

Reversals, on the other hand, are attacks done by the opponent under pressure for the expressed purpose of returning to a neutral situation. These attacks have fast startup but also have slow recovery, making them extremely risky. Some reversals, like dragon punches and most supers, may have some invulnerability, making them effective at beating whiffed attacks from the other player with the advantage. Other reversals, colloquially known as alpha counters, can be done directly out of blockstun at the cost of some player resources. There are even some reversals that can be done out of hitstun, known as combo breakers or bursts.

To put things all together, pressure tools beat blocking because the aggressor’s numerous low-risk options force the defender to guess what to do next, and the gamble is largely in the aggressor’s favor. Blocking beats reversals since all reversals are extremely negative on block, meaning that even people with slow reaction times (like yours truly) can easily punish them. At least on paper, reversals beat pressure tools by whiff punishing. Obviously, the aggressor still has the upper hand because he can simply do a frame trap to bait the reversal, but there is still always the possibility that he will guess wrong and lose the advantage, so it’s never 100% guaranteed.

Next week, we’ll analyze the extra avenue of combat unique to 2D fighters: the air. Why does it exist and why is it such a huge risk?

Source: Rushdown 101 – Risk vs Reward